‘We categorically reject the reports of mass layoffs in the sector’, Chandrasekhar, NASSCOM

The Dollar Business Bureau

Nasscom, belied the media reports about mass layoffs in the IT sector. Sounding optimistic the trade body said that the industry is likely to hire 1.5 lakh people on a net basis but the techies in the software industry have to re-equip themselves with skills relevant for the jobs in the market.

There were reports in the media last week that around 50,000 techies could be laid off this year from companies like Infosys, Cognizant and Wipro. Reacting to the same Nasscom President R Chandrasekhar told the media, "we categorically reject the reports of mass layoffs in the sector. FY17 saw 1.7 lakh people being added, while in Q4 alone, the gross hiring was of over 50,000 by top five companies.”

Chandrasekhar suggested that employees have to upgrade themselves to adapt to the changing scenario in the software sector. The world is fast moving towards newer technological methods for speed, reduced investment of money and to do away with time consuming manual labour. Thus, having skills in fields related to analytics, cyber-security, automation and robotics becomes all the more necessary. He assured that the IT industry would continue to be the ‘net hirer’ that is likely to induct around 1.5 lakh people in the sector. With newer sectors like e-commerce, digital payments, digital start-ups, mushrooming all around, around 3 million jobs are expected to be created in India by 2025.

Representatives from Wipro, Cognizant assured the media that annual appraisals performance linked layoffs were common that occurred every year and performance linked layoffs or alignment impacted about 0.5-3% of the talent pool and there is no change this year too. It is something that every company does to stay competitive and have the right skill sets.

Reports of mass layoffs have added to the woes of the IT employees since the curtailment of work visas and stricter work permit visas were adopted by US, Australia, Singapore and New Zealand. Companies are making huge investments to stay in the race and skilling up the employees on the new technologies ensures they stay upto date assured Raman Roy Chairman of Nasscom.

"The need for re-skilling talent is a reality that we have to address. To keep up in a fast-evolving technology environment, the IT industry must reinvent itself by re- skilling its employees in new and upcoming technologies," he added.